Scoop: Engaging Grimm, Brownstein Quips and the Winter Market

Gossip that knew Iowa would let us down.

AH, YES, WE REMEMBER THE PIGMAN WELL: The Nielsen television-ratings company released its rankings for 2011 last week, and Portland-filmed Grimm is the year’s “most engaging” show. That means people who watched Grimm can actually remember what they saw on Grimm. This is kind of funny because Grimm
includes creatures with names like Blutbaden, Bowerswine and Ziegevolk,
so people are remembering pidgin German and writing it in their little
Nielsen notebooks.

DECENTRALIZED: Former Carlyle and Fenouil chef Jake Martin
has left his latest gig slinging small plates at Old Town cocktail bar
Central to head the kitchen at Seattle’s How to Cook a Wolf. He has been
replaced in the Central kitchen by Paley’s Place alumnus Aaron Crane.

FRESH FARM: Need some fresh kale? The Portland Farmers Market will have plenty at the new Winter’s Market,
which opens Saturday, Jan. 7, at Shemanski Park. More than 35 vendors
will sell products such as kale, beets, radishes, kale, leeks, carrots
and kale from 10 am to 2 pm. There will also be tents, meats and
cheeses. And kale.

A CONCENTRATED ANTHOLOGY OF FUNNY THINGS CARRIE BROWNSTEIN HAS SAID ABOUT PORTLAND IN THE PAST MONTH: To The New Yorker:
“There are a lot of people here who can afford—financially but also
psychologically—to be really, really concerned about buying local, for
instance. It becomes mock epic. It’s like Alexander Pope’s ‘Rape of the
Lock.’” To The Atlantic: “You can stall out quickly in Portland
if you’re using a coffee shop as an office. If you’re trying to get
something done, you have to be careful not to hold a meeting at a bar or
making a point of seeing three movies a day. The city really enjoys its
downtime.” To The New York Times: “[Portlandia is] a magical place where everybody goes to tyrannical lengths to let you know how good they are.”

LAUGHING PLANET IS NOT BEING SOLD…YET: Last
week’s Scoop column featured our predictions for 2012 culture news,
which included a revival of the laserdisc and this week’s cover girl,
Storm Large, scoring a role as the “young” version of Kim Cattrall’s
character in Sex and the City 3. We also suggested Laughing Planet
might be sold to Altria, the corporation formerly known as Philip
Morris. Chuckles all around. Except for several people associated with
the apparently ironically named Laughing Planet. The burrito-seller has
asked for a retraction. Since our item was a prediction and 2012 has 363
or so more days to go, that’s impossible. However, we happily note that
Franz Spielvogel denies having any plans to sell. (Then again,
Stumptown boss Duane Sorenson said the same thing.) More on this story
in the extremely unlikely event it develops into more than a joke.